Kettles and Operation

Juice flowed from the settling vats into the grande, the largest of five kettles built into the furnace below. The grande was also the coolest, being farthest from the batterie kettle under which the furnace was fired. The chimney draft pulled heat from the fire through the furnace to heat the other kettles. The heated juice was hand dipped from the larger to the smaller kettle and ended as syrup in the batterie, the smallest and hottest, where it reached the strike, or sugar, stage. It was then ladled into a trough and poured into large wooden vats where sugar crystals began to form as it cooled. After hardening, it was spaded into slices, carried in small tubs to the purgery, or curing room, and packed in hogsheads, or wooden barrels.

Homosassa, Florida · United States